1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a receptacle for mounting connectors and in particular to a reversible receptacle for mounting connectors used in telecommunications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Telecommunication systems often use metallic wires to carry electrical signals to and from a subscriber's site. Typically the wires (e.g., tip and ring in a telephone system) terminate at the subscriber's site at a terminal block to which the subscriber's telecommunications equipment (e.g., telephone, facsimile machine, modem) are connected. In many instances, the wires are inserted into multiple contact connectors where each contact corresponds to an individual wire. One example of a multiple contact connector is the well known ZIDC (Z-shaped Insulation Displacement Connector) manufactured by Lucent Technologies Inc. of Murray Hill, N.J. Another multiple contact connector manufactured by Krone, Inc. of Germany.
The connectors are typically disposed in a housing which serves to store the connectors and localize them to one specific location to facilitate any future maintenance, additional wiring or rewiring that may be needed. The housing of the connectors also allows electrical access to each of the terminated wires so that they can be monitored electrically and/or visually. Many times, the connectors such as the ones discussed above are configured to allow protection circuitry to be connected thereto. The protection circuitry are used to divert occasional large current surges to electrical ground and thereby prevent the subscriber's equipment and the metallic wires from being damaged. The large current surges are often from lightning, voltage spikes and other energy surges that cause large amounts of current to flow through the metallic wires. The protection circuitry serves to create an electrical path to a robust electrical ground allowing the large currents to be routed safely to ground. Typically, the robust electrical ground comprises the housing electrically connected to a heavy gauge wire (e.g., thick metallic stranded cables) connected to earth ground. The housing and the heavy gauge wire must be able to withstand (i.e., provide a path to earth ground for the surge current without melting) the electrical energy carried by the surge currents.
FIG. 1 depicts a typical connector housing configuration. For clarity, only a portion of the housing is shown with only one connector (118) disposed therein. Connector 118, which is manufactured by Krone Inc., has contacts 119 is mounted onto two oppositely positioned housing extensions 102 each having an extension opening 116. Housing 100 comprises top surface 122, side surfaces 114, back surface 120 and bottom surface 124. Grounding connector 108 having cable openings 112 and secure openings 110 is attached to one of the side surfaces 114 of housing 100. Heavy gauge ground cables (not shown), typically connected to earth ground, are inserted in openings 114 and 116 and are secured to grounding connector 108 by inserting screws (not shown) into secure openings 110. Secure openings 110 are sometimes threaded to facilitate the insertion of screws therein. Housing 100 is attached to a structure (not shown) with the use of mounting brackets 104. Typically a screw, nail or other fastening device (not shown) is inserted into bracket openings 106 for mounting housing 100 to the structure.
Bundles of wires (not shown) terminate at the connector contacts. These bundles of wires enter and exit housing 100 though openings (not shown) in back surface 120 or through openings in side surface 114 between extensions 102. There is often a need to troubleshoot particular wires or wire pairs and thus access to the back of the connectors is often required. Also, surge protection circuitry is often attached to the connectors to prevent subscriber equipment connected thereto from being damaged. The installation of such circuitry to one or more connectors often requires the temporary removal of such connectors or access to the rear of such connectors. Further, double ended connectors, such as the double ended ZIDC connectors manufactured by Lucent Technologies, Inc., are now frequently used instead of the single ended connectors such as the Krone connector 118 depicted in FIG. 1. The use of double ended connectors often necessitates access to the rear of the housing during installation for wiring, visual inspection and electrical monitoring of such connectors.
The housing depicted in FIG. 1 cannot efficiently use double ended connectors as there would be little or no access to one end of these connectors when disposed in housing 100. Troubleshooting wires or connector contacts for the housing connector combination of FIG. 1 is labor intensive as access to the rear of the connectors often requires that the housing be dismounted from the structure to which it is mounted and the connectors removed from the housing (100) in order to gain access to the rear of such connectors. This is often a very awkward, tedious and slow process complicated by many bundles of wires that typically enter and exit the housing. Further, the ground cables (not shown) attached to the housing 100 are typically heavy gauge or thick metallic cables making manipulation of the housing difficult. Consequently, in many cases the ground cables have to be disconnected from the housing when making a wiring change or troubleshooting the wiring.
Another connector housing design has a receptacle portion and a base portion. The base is attached to a structure while the receptacle portion is hingedly attached to the base. The receptacle portion, which is used to house connectors, has a rear opening that provides access to the rear of any mounted connector. Double ended connectors can be mounted within the receptacle portion such that when it is swung about the hinged attachment, access to both ends of the mounted connectors is possible. Typically, both the base and the receptacle are made of a metallic material and a ground cable is attached to the base to provide the proper ground. The hinge connection that connects the base to the receptacle is also typically metallic thereby providing electrical ground to the receptacle portion. Although this design solves the problem of obtaining access to both ends of a mounted double ended connector, it has several disadvantages. First, the receptacle portion when swung around to expose the rear ends of the mounted connectors does not provide a conformable orientation in order to comfortably perform rear wiring. This is because the back of the receptacle portion is often angled with respect to the base. Therefore, the connectors are often times wired individually outside of the housing and then are mounted onto the housing when all wiring is completed. This is often a labor intensive and thus costly operation. Also, the hinge connection included in this design makes the design and manufacture of such a device costly. Further, this design requires an additional flexible ground cable that is connected to the swingable receptacle portion as that portion may not have the proper ground because the hinge mechanism which connects the base to the swingable receptacle often does not provide a reliable ground connection. The additional ground cable connected to the receptacle makes manipulation of the receptacle even more difficult and thus complicates troubleshooting and/or wiring of the mounted connectors.
Therefore, there exists the need to have a connector receptacle which can be easily oriented to allow access to both ends of mounted connectors therein thereby facilitating wiring of mounted connectors. There exists an additional need to have a connector receptacle that has a robust grounding mechanism that does not interfere with the wiring of the connectors and the manipulation of the housing.